The Beginning and The End
Prologue He was always waiting. The man who stood in front of him, standing on a mountain of enormous golden scales, was always waiting. The dark cloak he wore was stained with the blood of hundreds of dragons. And he lifted his head and roared in anger and frustration. A frightening, lengthened scream erupted out of his throat, changing pitch and transitioning from rough to smooth in a few seconds. The nightmare that was his voice terrified the dragon waiting for its master, the last dragon of its kind. Howls and roars of fear echoed around the island. The man creeping up on him was blasted by the unholy wall of sound, and he staggered back. The screaming man stopped, and turned around at hearing a twig snap under the stumbling man's heel. A frighteningly happy smile grew on his face. Just then, Iotas Arcanum knew he was in trouble. Myre Fang was not known for taking prisoners. Chapter 1: King of Dragons Hiccup was leafing through the Book of Dragons. The rustle of pages was the only sound in the Great Hall, apart from Fishlegs' constant fidgeting in his attempts to stay quiet. He finally gasped. Hiccup hadn't realised he was holding his breath."Hiccup, I can't take it anymore. I want to go open about this. Will you please just hurry up? We haven't found out a lot of information this new dragon and there's nothing you can do about that. Red Ghosts are like, well, ghosts," Fishlegs finally blurted out. Hiccup sighed. Maybe if he ignored him, Fishlegs would stay quiet. Hiccup frowned at Fishlegs, and went back to the Book. "Hiccuuuuuuuup..." Fishlegs moaned. Hiccup sighed again, and looked at him. "What? What is it, what do you want?" he asked. "Hiccup, I can't stand not being able to tell everyone about our findings, and it's driving me insane." Fishlegs said. "I. Want. To. Tell. Everyone. Please?" he added. Hiccup stared at him, wondering how someone so intelligent could be so forgetful. This guy remembered every single fact about dragons there was to know, but he couldn't remember what he ate for breakfast an hour ago. "Fishlegs, I've told you, I want to give the Red Ghost to Astrid as my wedding gift to her." Hiccup told him. "If you could please be quiet, the whole village would not wake up and come to see what we're doing." "Well, why me? Why didn't you get Snotlout or the twins, or even your mother to help? Why, out of all the people on this island, did you choose me?" Fishlegs ranted. Hiccup hurriedly shushed him. "Well, as you know, my mom isn't very good at hiding things, she would probably act suspiciously around Astrid, and Snotlout and the twins are so stupid that asking them to help would be the equivalent of telling them to spill the beans." Fishlegs pondered for a bit. That was true. Valka was a dragon expert, but not so much at lying or at least covering something up. and then there was the three troublemakers. Hiccup had hit the nail right on the head with that one. All in all, he was probably the best choice that Hiccup had. "Okay Hiccup, you're right. Come on, let's go to Phantom Island. We can visit Soul. He could help us with this research and we could train him along the way," Fishlegs beamed. Hiccup smiled and went out to Toothless, closely followed by Fishlegs, who was now telling Meatlug to "Get up, girl". Hiccup got on the still sleepy Toothless, and they flew off to Phantom Island, the uncharted island that was home to Red Ghosts. Upon landing on the rocky beach, they were almost immediately greeted by a friendly roar. An enormous, glowing red dragon, with gargantuan wings and spikes and horns that could easily gut another dragon, crashed through the trees and fell at their feet, panting. Soul got up, and licked Toothless and Meatlug. Then those happy eyes, glowing red and devoid of pupils, settled on Hiccup and Fishlegs. It's horned, pointed snout nosed the two of them gently, until they patted him and rubbed their hands along the length of his horn. He jumped around happily and shot a single celebratory ball of fire into the sky. Red flames and streamers of fire dripped from Soul's mouth and all of a sudden, he looked extremely terrifying. The power and heat that radiated from him hinted at his true nature as the alpha and leader of the Red Ghosts, which was a great and powerful position that even the Alpha of all dragons acknowledged. Toothless gave out a faint growl from within the deep recesses of his throat, and his mouth, his nostrils, and the ridges on his spine and between his eyes momentarily glowed blue. Soul's mouth stopped leaking the scarlet blaze, and he attempted a grin like Toothless, but the effect was ruined by the shark-like teeth that filled every possible space in his gums. Hiccup gently pushed Soul's mouth shut. "Hey, whaddya say we train a bit, huh? We can practice the old tricks and I'll teach you new ones,"Hiccup said cheerfully. "Well, Soul? How about it?" Soul happily licked him and Fishlegs. "I'll take that as a 'yes',"Hiccup grinned. He walked towards the side of the island that they used for training. Soul happily bounded along behind him, every once in a while crashing into or jumping on Meatlug or Toothless due to his recklessness. Hiccup climbed over a few boulders and jumped into the clearing, or Soul's training ground. He gasped. On the beach lay a dead Bewilderbeast. Blood flowed from the fresh wounds in its head, body, tail and stomach. It looked like it had been killed viciously by another dragon, even larger than it itself. Fishlegs clambered up the boulders, slipped and fell down behind him. He got up. "Hiccup? What's wrong..." he trailed off, having also spotted the dead Bewilderbeast. Hiccup's heart and mind raced. The holes in its body were too large for a harpoon, so what could have done this? Certainly not another Bewilderbeast. He had spotted this one, ash white with gray spikes on the back of its neck and spine. It had been the only one in the vicinity. The only other one he knew the location of was a smaller one that lived quite far away from Phantom Island. Its tusks had been underdeveloped, little more than extended, thin stubs. It could never have done this. But then what could have? Chapter 2: Desperate Times Alphas' sword flashed once more, and took the fourth soldier's head. Slightly panting, he looked over at Betas, who shrugged. "No, I don't think that Myre sent them. They don't wear the same armour, although that could just be a ploy to divert our attention from him and to waste our resources in tracking down the person who sent them," Betas said. "Good thinking," Alphas replied. "That is a possibility, but they could have been sent from someone else trying to attack us. We'll have to consider both for now. Go. Report back to Stratos. He might know what's going on. And tell Exypnos as well, he could solve this. I'll stay here with Machitis and kill any more of those grunts." "Alphas, how will I go? Boats would take too long and my dragon is too tired to fly." Alphas sighed. "Take Wreckage and fly to Nisi. But I expect you to back in an hour. As a Black Angel, Wreckage is going to be faster than Spiral, who is a Cloud Eater. Good for heights but not speed. So you have my permission to take Wreckage, because this is an urgent matter. Now go. Machitis and I can handle it. You ''need to go and deliver the message. You can come back when you're done. But for now, GO." Betas ran off. Alphas watched him for a while, then looked up towards where Machitis was supposed to be on lookout duty. He started to climb up the slope. On the way, he started thinking about the Hairy Hooligans. They were a fierce but gentle tribe, and would have been a great asset to his clan, Arcanum, if they had taken the side of dragons. Now, they were probably still hunting down Monstrous Nightmares, Deadly Nadders, Hideous Zipplebacks, Gronckles and Night Furies. Alphas tutted to himself. If he had been hunting dragons, he wouldn't have gone after common trivialities such as those, especially Night Furies. There were already enough of those mischief makers on Nisi, and they were a real handful. No, Alphas would have gone for the true beautiful rarities, such as Midnight Racers, or Solar Moons. There was a reason the Mystery class had been created, not for dragons you knew nothing about because they hid, but for dragons you knew nothing about because they were rare. Changewings should have belonged to the Gifted class, not Mystery. Alphas reached the end of his climb. He entered the little camouflage hideout he had built for keeping lookout. Machitis was slumped ina chair. He was unconscious, his hands were tied behind his back, and there was a small cloth in his lap. Alphas went and picked it up. It was a gag. If it wasn't tied, that meant that the subduer had heard him coming and abandoned the task, which implied that they would still be in the vicinity. They must also have had a lot of skill to be able to knock Machitis unconscious. Alphas heard a small sound behind him and whirled around while reaching for his twin daggers, but was too late. He felt something hard hit him right in th middle of his forehead. He fell. And as darkness crept in at the edge of his vision, he saw his attacker, a young woman with longish blonde hair. She wore armoured shoulder pads, a small red shirt, a brown skirt, brown boots topped with fur, and matching wristwarmers. She wore a belt with the Berkian crest on it. Chapter 3: Arcanum Hiccup loooked at the two men gagged in at tied to chairs. One of them, with gray eyes and silver hair that Hiccup was absolutely fascinated by, but didn't let on, was sitting relaxed in his chair. He almost seemed to be asleep, were it not for the fact that his arms were moving in a quiet attempt to free himself. The other one, with dark green eyes and equally dark brown hair was quite noticeably trying to rip the ropes that bound his hands apart while glaring at Hiccup. "Okay, we're going to take the gags off now, but when we do, you ''will tell us everything you know." the man with gray eyes nodded, while the other's glare intensified. Realizing what his companion had done, he looked at him, eyes wide in horror, but the gray eyed one just glanced at Hiccup. The green eyed one nodded. Hiccup went and took their gags off. "Thank you," the gray eyed one said. "First of all, allow me to introduce ourselves. I am Alphas. This is Machitis. And I would like to ask a favour of you". His speech was highly sophisticated. He almost didn't pronounce the 'r's. For some reason, it reminded Hiccup of Viggo Grimborne. "What's the favour?" Hiccup asked. The man stood up. His hand was clenched into a fist. He reached behind him, and up into his overcoat. When his hand came back, it was not clenched any more. "H-how did you get out of your ropes?" Hiccup stammered. "Tiny little blade in a hidden pocket in my overcoat. You should have checked us properly. I had the time to get through most of the rope while you were sitting there and observing us," the man said dismissiely. "There wasn't even anyone behind me to see what I was doing," he added. "Elementary, really. Now for the favour." "I notice that you have enslaved dragons. Considering the time you have had to yourself to hunt dragons, I am not really surprised, but you should look at things from my point of view. On my island, Nisi, dragons are our friends. We love them and live with them. We study them and help them with any problems they may be facing. A shortage of fish? We fish excessively. Eel infestation? We send out parties to kill them. They are then smoked and we eat them. We also give them to some of the dragons that actually eat eels. Nothing goes wrong for us because the dragons also come to help us. Getting attacked? Fireballs start raining. Some dragons aren't being cooperative? The ones that are discipline the others. We all get something. It's a good situation for everyone because everyone is satisfied, whereas you barbarians are just hunting them, killing them, wiping them off the face of the Earth. Learn to live peacefully and get something out of it, instead of being hostile and losing members of the village as a result. Think rationally and embrace the lifestyle that my clan has. I implore you." "Look, Alphas, you should know that we think of dragons exactly like you seem to. We trained them, we defeated a few of the dragons that were actually out to kill us, like once there was a Red Death, another time there was a Bewilderbeast with its owner, a madman who ''actually ''enslaved dragons and recruited them into his dragon army. His name was Drago Bludvist.,"Hiccup said. "Look. This is Toothless, the first dragon to ever have been trained. A Night Fury. Pretty impressive, huh?" Hiccup said with just a touch of pride. "Night Furies are common trivialties on Nisi. You think he is impressive? Wait until you see a Chaos Crumbler. Or an Annihilator. Maybe a Black Angel. Speaking of which, Wreckage should be here any second now." The gray eyed man smirked. Right on cue, the doors to the Great Hall burst open, and Fishlegs and Astrid poured in with screaming children and frightened adult villagers. "Astrid, what happened?" Hiccup yelled over the commotion. "There's an enormous black dragon outside. It's firing at everything and destroying it. It's heading this way!" Astrid yelled back. Just then, there was a massive boom and a roar. Every single person in the great hall went quiet. The grey eyed man spoke up. "If you allow me, I can go and calm him down. If you don't he will come in after Machitis and I, will rampage, and kill innocents. Unless you want their deaths on your concsience, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, I need your permission to go out." Hiccup looked back at him in shock. This man had not known about Berk befriending dragons, but knew his, Hiccup's, full name and title. Too astonished for words, Hiccup only motioned to Astrid to free him from his bonds. The man stood up, and walked outside, closing the doors behind him. Only then did Hiccup notice his crest. A half full vial and a book. It was then that Hiccup realized that that man and his compatriot were of the only clan that had ever stood with dragons even before Vikings made peace with them. When dragons were feared and hunted, only their clan had defended them, fought for them and kept them safe. Their clan was powerful and intelligent. Their clan was the defenders of truth and the keepers of secrets. Their clan was Arcanum. The tribe of secrets. The clan of sorcery.Category:Fanfiction Category:Fan-Fiction stories